Chapter 6a

Question 1

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Answer 1

Sensation

Question 2

Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli.

Answer 2

Sensory Receptors

Question 3

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

Answer 3

Perception

Question 4

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.

Answer 4

Bottom Up Processing

Question 5

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.

Answer 5

Top down Processing

Question 6

Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells into neural impulses our brain can interpret.

Answer 6

Transduction

Question 7

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience with them.

Answer 7

Psychophysics

Question 8

The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

Answer 8

Absolute Threshold

Question 9

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s, experiences, expectations, and motivations.

Answer 9

Signal Detection Theory

Question 10

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Answer 10

Subliminal

Question 11

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

Answer 11

Priming

Question 12

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience this as a just noticeable difference (or jnd).

Answer 12

Difference Threshold

Question 13

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount).

Answer 13

Webers law

Question 14

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Answer 14

Sensory Adaptation

Question 15

The mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Answer 15

Perceptual Set